Columbia Sportswear, the Portland-based maker of jackets and other outerwear, is considering expanding into Vancouver, city and company officials said Thursday.
Mayor Tim Leavitt said the company met with him this week to discuss opportunities for about 30,000 square feet of space to house 50 to 150 staff people. The company’s direct-to-consumer business line is growing rapidly, Leavitt said, and it’s looking to enlarge its operational footprint.
Peter Bragdon, senior vice president and general counsel for Columbia, said Thursday that he, CEO Tim Boyle and Xander Smit, the company’s director of global real estate, met with Leavitt on Wednesday. The company’s timeline is uncertain, Bragdon said, and it remains in search mode. “We’re looking around this area and other parts of Oregon and in other places,” he said. Nevertheless, the meeting with the mayor was good, he said.
“We have been growing rapidly,” Bragdon said. “We’re bursting at the seams at some of our properties. That’s causing us to look for other opportunities and, frankly, Vancouver has a lot of things to recommend it, in addition to having a responsive mayor who’s done a good job of conveying some of the strengths of that city.”
Said Leavitt: “We would be very excited if Columbia Sportswear were to choose to come to Vancouver to expand that business line.” Since the company already has about 150 employees who live in Southwest Washington, Leavitt said, the company believes it’s reasonable to consider an expansion in the region. The expansion would largely involve call-center jobs with support staff, Leavitt said. Some new jobs would probably be created.
Bragdon said the parties did discuss call-center jobs but the jobs associated with the potential expansion wouldn’t necessarily be limited to those types of positions. Leavitt said Columbia hopes to launch the operation beginning in the second quarter of 2015. The company initially began searching for a site in east Vancouver, he said, but also was interested in examining west Vancouver. Leavitt said he and the company also discussed access to highways and amenities.
Founded in 1938, Columbia Sportswear has grown into a global company. In 2013, its products were sold in about 100 countries, according to its annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It doesn’t own or operate manufacturing facilities “and virtually all” of its products are made in factories outside the U.S., according to the company’s SEC filing.
Through wholesalers, independent distributors and direct-to-consumer channels, Columbia sells outdoor and lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment under the Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, Sorel, prAna and Montrail brands. As of Dec. 31, 2013, the company had 4,320 full-time equivalent employees.
In the third quarter of this year, the company recorded net sales of $675.3 million, up 29 percent from net sales of $523.1 million during the same three-month period in 2013. It posted a third-quarter profit of $65.6 million. That compares with a profit of $54.6 million in the same year-ago period.
Columbia Sportswear’s stock, which trades as COLM on the Nasdaq exchange, closed down 36 cents Thursday, at $43.31 per share. The company’s shares have traded between $33.06 and $44.98 in the past 52 weeks.
Business Editor Gordon Oliver contributed to this story.
